The Best Boiler of 2008
And the winner is, Kate Boiler Winslet. And up she comes to accept the award, tears streaming and words askew, forgetting which manufacturer to thank and which energy supplier to mention.
No, only joking, and of course, for the second year running, the best boiler for 2008 is the Baxi Duo-tec Combi 28HE. This particular beauty was voted, again, the Best Buy by Which, the leading consumer magazine.
Which picked 52 boilers from leading manufacturers and put them through a rigorous testing procedure. The criteria included energy efficiency, emissions, fuel consumption, hardiness and, importantly, how easy they were for a Gas Safe Registered gas engineer to service and install.
From the 52 boilers, a final line-up of eight were labelled Which Best Buys. They were deemed to be highly efficient and easy-to-use, and some of the easiest to operate and service.
And from the final eight was selected the ultimate Best Buy of the all, the Baxi Duo-tec Combi 28HE which came out with the highest score of them all at 79%. It won five star ratings in the categories of efficiency, performance, emissions, features and installation. Four star ratings were given for its power and ease of use. And Which particularly praised the Baxi Duo-tec Combi 28HE’s suitability for smaller houses and flats.
The Which report was fulsome in its praise, stating: “It’s one of the few boilers we’ve tested which reaches the very highest efficiency standards, matching its claims to meet the A SEDBUK standard. As well as offering excellent efficiency, this boiler is reassuringly easy to use. Its instruction manuals are well organised and the controls on the boiler are simple too.”
By the way, in case you didn’t know, SEDBUK stands for Seasonal Efficiency and it is a rating scheme to assess the efficiency of a domestic boiler. It represents an average annual efficiency rating of a domestic boiler which runs in a typical house, having made certain assumptions including usage pattern, control mechanisms and climate. SEDBUK is a government backed initiative developed under their Energy Efficiency Best Practice Programme. It involved the co-operation of the major boiler manufacturers in the testing of their products over a three-year period and then calculating a theoretical seasonal efficiency model for each one.
To take a quick look at the Baxi Duo-tec Combi HE range, it represents the state of the art in boiler technology. It is also one of the most efficient, converting more than 90% of their fuel to heat and this earns them the A SEDBUK rating. Current Government legislation states that all new boilers, where practically possible, should have a High Efficiency rating of at least 86%.
The range also boasts user-friendly controls and unlike many of its rivals, has strong design features designed to match with modern homes. They also incorporate easy-to-read pressure gauges. The range consist of the 40kW, 33kW, 28kW and 24kW output models for natural gas which, says Baxi, are designed to accommodate the needs of properties from the sizes of flats, to large houses. There is also a Baxi Duo-tec Combi 28HE LPG model.
They enjoy a two-year parts and labour guarantee, subject to an annual service of course.
And finally, Baxi Duo-tec Combi 28HE is also the CORGI Boiler of the year for 2008.
Baxi must be very proud.
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